


Fight or Flight

by MrsNazarioWrites



Series: The Edge of the World [4]
Category: Choices (Visual Novel), Choices - Fandom, Choices - Stories you play, Perfect Match (Visual Novel), Pixelberry - Fandom, Play Choices, PlayChoices
Genre: Action, Action & Romance, Action/Adventure, Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Angst and Feels, Car Chases, Don't copy to another site, Drama, Drama & Romance, F/M, Hurt/Comfort, Non-Graphic Violence, Romance, Suspense, Thriller
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-04
Updated: 2019-08-04
Packaged: 2020-07-31 07:00:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,010
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20111038
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MrsNazarioWrites/pseuds/MrsNazarioWrites
Summary: Damien and the gang are chasing the van and come in contact with a familiar face. Meanwhile, Maya and Alana are on the run. Will their friends catch up to them? Or will someone else find them first?





	Fight or Flight

Damien gripped the steering wheel tightly as the car maneuvered from one lane to another, overtaking anyone he came across and scanning every vehicle he saw to check if it was the van he was looking for.

Hayden was facing the back window, checking to see if anyone from Eros was following them while Steve looked out the side windows to spot any other suspicious vehicles. Nadia was sitting on the edge of her seat, her hands on the shoulder of Damien’s headrest as she kept peering in every direction outside, apparently having hoped that her cousin would’ve jumped out of the van somewhere along the way.

As soon as the matches had taken off with Maya and Alana at the museum, Sloane had pulled up on the same curb in the rental car the group had used to get here. They’d been following them for the last forty five minutes now, speeding down main roads, back roads and eventually into the highway. But after some of the van’s many detours, they’d lost sight of them and were struggling to catch their trail again.

“Sloane,” Damien glanced at the passenger seat where she was sitting now. “You find anything yet?”

“I’m working on it,” she replied, typing away furiously in her tablet. “I’ve entered the codes to hack their GPS. But I’m not sure how far they’ve gone, so it could take a bit before I get a signal.” While everyone else was on high alert for a sighting of the van, Sloane had noted that Harley possessed a similar digital signature to Hayden, so she was using Hayden’s programming to try and track down his other version.

Suddenly, Sloane’s phone started ringing, indicating an incoming video call. The caller ID read as ‘Unknown’. Everyone in the car looked at each other uncertainly before Damien nodded to her. She swiped to answer it. “Hello?”

A familiar face came into view. “Sloane,” Cecile’s smooth, cold voice greeted her on the other line.

“Cecile.” Sloane kept her cool, but there was still a trace of anger in her voice.

“So nice to hear from you again. Enjoying your trip to Paris?” she quipped. “I hope you found time to visit the Louvre. So much exquisite _artwork_.”

Nadia bristled at that. “How dare you-”

“How about you cut to the chase, Cecile?” Damien stated curtly. “Where’s Maya?” He was hardly in the mood to prolong this conversation. No matter how much he wanted to curse Eros and its depraved CEO to the deepest pits of hell, call Cecile all sorts of names, find those matches and strangle them, blame himself for not protecting Maya, he had pushed everything else to the back of his mind.

Now Damien was running on pure adrenaline, his only interest being in catching up to that goddamn van.

Cecile sighed. “Well since you really want to know.” he heard the sound of typing in the background; then suddenly, the video of Cecile changed to a different one. The new footage displayed the violet seats of the inside of a van.

Hayden sucked in a breath.

In direct view of the video was Maya. She was lying on her side, out cold. Her wrists had been bound behind her back and a cloth was tied over her mouth. As he glanced at the footage, Damien’s hands tightened considerably around the steering wheel and he gritted his teeth as he struggled to keep his eyes on the road.

Nadia’s hands flew to her mouth. “Maya …” she whispered, tears welling up in her eyes. Steve squeezed her hand comfortingly, his lips set in a tight line. Sloane had a morose expression on her face as she viewed the video quietly. Finally, Damien took the phone from her to get a closer look.

Courtesy of his law enforcement training in analyzing video footage, he could make out a pair of slacks and a jacket identical to his as the video moved around. It was the match; his copy. He was sure of it. Then the footage panned to the front seat where Alana was driving, one of her hands cuffed to the seat’s headrest. Then another familiar face came into view in the passenger seat.

Sloane’s eyes widened. “Wait, is that …?”

“Harley,” Hayden spat.

The video switched back to Cecile’s face. “I suppose Maya would have already told you about Harley. The new and improved version of #109? His companion, on the other hand, is a more … recent creation.”

“You have some real nerve, trying to replace me with a robot.” Damien snapped.

“No need to take it personally, Damien. I assure you there is a purpose to all this.”

“And what purpose is that?”

“What it’s always been – to take back what’s ours.” Then her eyes narrowed. “Which brings me to my next order of business.” Cecile sat back in her chair. “We want our hardware back – your _Steve_ and _Hayden._” Her lips curled in distaste, apparently at having to say their names. “And you’re going to bring them to us if you want your friends back. Two of yours for two of ours.”

Damien caught onto her word choice in that last sentence. “So that’s why you sent your men after me,” his jaw was taut with anger as the events at the museum replayed in his mind. “And used a copy of me to lure Maya.”

“Very good, detective,” she sneered. “I’ll admit that you escaping was unanticipated, but Ms. Kusuma’s arrival proved most opportune instead.”

“What exactly are you getting out of this?” Sloane demanded. “I know the inner workings of Matches inside out. I know they can’t hurt them.”

“Now when did I ever say they were just Matches?”

“Hey!” Nadia tore the phone out of Damien’s hand. “The real Damien is with us and you know it! He would never-”

“And when did I say they were humans?” she taunted. “You really are too naïve for your own good.”

“Who are you calling naïve, you b-” before she could start the inevitable string of expletives Damien saw coming, he snatched the phone back from her.

“Get to the point, Cecile. What are they?”

“Mr. West sent his best to watch over Maya. They’re highly skilled and more than capable of engaging if asked to. I believe Maya already asked me about them once, don’t you remember?”

“Sirens.”

“Not quite.” Cecile smirked. “Not yet at least, but we’ll get there soon thanks to your little girlfriend’s past affair with Hayden. I’m sure the data they provided would advance our research leaps and bounds ahead of where it is now. And depending on where this goes,” she pointed to her tablet, displaying the video footage they’d seen earlier, and then to them. “Maybe even better.”

“And we’re just supposed to assume you’ll let us go if we come? How do we know you won’t just capture us all again?”

“I’m afraid that’s not really up to you, Damien.” Cecile replied smoothly. “Of course, don’t show up if you don’t want to. But in that case I can’t guarantee your friend’s safety.” She placed her clasped hands on the table and leaned forward, grinning smugly. “After all, given how her last consultation went at our facility, her experiment was left incomplete. Fortunately, Harley is still around to complete the task.”

Nadia’s face paled. “You- you can’t do that! You won’t get away with this!”

“Oh I think we will, now that we’ve taken our files back,” she retorted. “Go to the police or to the press if you want. Let’s see if they believe you without the proper evidence.”

“Please, please don’t hurt them.”

“As I said, you’re in no position to negotiate now. You brought this on yourselves by interfering with our experiments and stealing our property in the first place,” Her tone was venomous as she glared at them. “Considering your actions at the facility, you’re lucky she has been unharmed until now. Think about it.” Then she pressed a button and hung up the call.

——————————

Dexter stood up, coughing and waving the dust out of his face as he watched the van take off from the station. He rubbed his neck where Alana had attacked him with the syringe. Fortunately, his lack of a circulatory system had spared him the effects of the drug

Suddenly an electronic device strapped to his belt beeped and he answered it. “Hello?” He spoke into his comm as he walked around, searching for some alternate method of transportation.

“It’s Maya. She escaped! Into the forest.” Harley’s snarl came on the other line when he answered. “I need you to take the van and go around the highway to the other side of this station. Pull over and I’ll meet you there.”

Dexter cleared his throat awkwardly. “Yeah about that …”

There was a groan on the other end. “Don’t tell me.”

“Yep, made off with the van.”

“You were supposed to watch her!”

“I could say the same for you!”

“How the hell do you lose a handcuffed woman in a dress?!”

“Hey! She’s an Interpol agent and she had the wheel, which by the way, was your call! Maya’s an unarmed civilian on foot! What’s your excuse?”

“She escaped out the back window,” Harley muttered. “Looks like she didn’t take my warning seriously enough.”

_Warning? _Dexter frowned. For some reason, he didn’t like how that sounded. “Harley?” he said carefully. “Remember our orders. She has to be brought back alive.”

“How about you just focus on catching your prisoner before she gets away?”

“I’m serious, Harley.”

The sounds of running in the background accompanied by the crunch of leaves paused, before he spoke again. “You’re … concerned about her?” Dexter could hear the suspicion in Harley’s voice.

At that remark, Maya’s face suddenly seemed to flash in front of him. But it happened so quickly that he wasn’t able to process the expression clearly enough to analyze the connection. “Don’t be ridiculous,” he shot back. “I just don’t want you jeopardizing the mission.”

“Fair enough. Now go after her and get her back or we won’t make it to the location!” Harley snapped. “The last thing we need is their idiot friends catching up to us! Don’t screw up.” Then the call was disconnected.

Dexter sighed, grumbling to himself as he continued his search. When Maya had asked to go to the bathroom, he’d had a feeling that she’d pull something like this, but somehow hadn’t been able to say no to her when she’d pleaded with him.

_Another goddamn perk of Damien Nazario’s personality, I suppose._

Then he noticed a young blonde man across the station. He was sitting on his parked motorcycle while talking on his cellphone. Squaring his shoulders, Dexter walked up towards him casually, bits of his conversation becoming clearer as he got closer.

“I’m sorry I’m late Katie, my motorcycle ran out of fuel so I had to refill it …” The man was so engrossed with his conversation that he didn’t notice Dexter approaching. “Yeah, okay. Love you.” Once he hung up, he startled upon noticing him.

“Hey man, what’s- whoa!” Without breaking his stride, Dexter reached out with one arm and shoved him off of the motorcycle with such force that the man flew back several feet. “What the hell- hey that’s my bike!”

Ignoring him, Dexter swung his leg over the motorcycle, revved it up and headed for the road. As he picked up speed, he pulled out a small remote control from his belt and navigated to a particular setting. “Enjoy your ride for now, Kusuma,” Dexter murmured, selecting a certain option. “Let’s see how far you get.” And with that, he turned up the throttle, staring intently in the direction of his target.

The blonde man stood up, completely puzzled. “He knocked me back at least six feet …” Then his phone rang again.

“Leo! Seriously, where the hell are you?!” Her voice came on the other line. “Are you on your way yet?”

Leo shifted awkwardly. “Yeah … funny story …”

————————

There was a brief, uncomfortable silence as all of Cecile’s implications were starting to sink in for everyone; the nature of those robots that had Maya and Alana at their mercy and what they were capable of doing to them.

The silence was broken by the _ping! _from Sloane’s phone, revealing the location Cecile had asked them to come to.

“They- they won’t _actually _hurt them, will they?” Nadia’s voice wavered. “I mean, Maya said that Harley’s based off of Hayden. He wouldn’t, would he?” No one answered. “Damien?”

He sighed. “Harley was created to do psychological experiments on her by pushing her buttons, not to date her.”

“It’s true,” Hayden remarked sadly. “They distorted my personality to fit their own ends. I’m pretty sure he doesn’t care about her well being.”

“But it still doesn’t make sense,” Steve interjected. “If they were going to capture Damien and replace him with a robot, why would they take Maya too? Couldn’t they have just left him with her? I mean, it wasn’t just her, he had us all fooled too!”

“Because she would’ve seen through it right away,” Damien said. “Just like she did with Harley.”

No one had seen this coming. Since Hayden was a robot himself, him being replaced wouldn’t have been such a shock to them. Eros had already pulled that stunt once with Maya, and it was probably the same reason Harley hadn’t been sent to lure her away from the group this time; she’d already met him. And they knew that she wouldn’t fall for the same trick twice.

But Damien was human. They wouldn’t have been on guard around him they way they were with Hayden and Steve. Somehow it had never occurred to them that real people’s appearances could have been copied to matches as well as their personalities. Based on what everyone had told him, the robot had played his part convincingly; taking full advantage of Maya’s trust in Damien.

And now she was on her way to some unknown place, where Eros no doubt had something in store for her. At that thought, Cecile’s words about his copy came to mind.

The guards that had ambushed him in the museum had intended to capture him too. What exactly did they want with Maya? And how was Damien to be involved this time?

There was definitely more to this than just a hostage exchange. The fact of the matter was that they knew too much already. They’d been in their facility, discovered many of Eros’ secrets. They may have lost the incriminating data they had on Eros, but Sloane had proven she was an expert at hacking; she was more than capable of getting it back or finding something else on them. There was no way they would be let go free even if they were to hand over Hayden and Steve.

Damien let out a shaky breath as he tried to ease the pit forming in his stomach.

Sloane seemed to notice the worry on his face and she placed a hand on his shoulder comfortingly. “They might have Maya now, but they’re still on their way.” She narrowed her eyes determinedly. “Even if we can’t evade Eros, we can at least catch up to them. She’s not going through this alone. Alana’s with her, too. She’ll be fine.”

He nodded curtly and went back to focusing on driving. Several miles later, Sloane jumped in her seat. “I’ve got Harley’s signal!” She exclaimed, pointing ahead. “It’s coming from that gas station over there!”

Damien increased his speed as he turned in that direction, scanning the area for the vehicle; he eventually found one, but it wasn’t the one he’d expected. As he approached the gas station, a motorcycle came speeding out of the station and onto the road. The person riding the motorcycle stood out to him and he narrowed his eyes.

But the van was nowhere to be seen, which could only mean one thing. “Everybody hang on,” Damien called to his friends. Then he slammed the accelerator and they were off.

———————

_“Cruise control activated.”_

Alana raised an eyebrow. “What?” She reached for the small lever under her steering wheel and was surprised to find that the small light next to the label was turned on. “I didn’t press anything, how the hell did that happen?” She pressed her foot on the accelerator again to automatically turn off the setting, but the van continued to lose speed.

After several minutes of trying and failing to deactivate the cruise control, something caught her eye in the rearview mirror. The revving of a motorcycle engine grew louder and she narrowed her eyes when Dexter came into view. “Well _that’s _not a coincidence at all.”

As he drove up the lane next to where she was driving, she jerked the steering wheel to the side to ram into him. Dexter switched directions and rode around her in a circle to the other side. He reached into his jacket and pulled out the gun Harley had left with him and aimed.

Then the strangest thing happened.

Dexter was pointing the gun at her window, but didn’t fire. His brows were furrowed in thought as he seemed to hesitate. Then he lowered his aim towards the tires and fired. Cursing, Alana changed lanes rapidly to dodge the incoming bullets.

Then another vehicle came zooming from behind, flashing its brights. As it gained on them, Alana recognized Damien’s rental car.

She smirked. “Now we’re talking.”

————————-

“Oh my god, he’s shooting at them!” Nadia exclaimed.

Damien cursed under his breath as he reached for the taser in his jacket. “Sloane, take over the wheel!” With his foot still on the accelerator, he opened the window and leaned out while Sloane lunged for the steering wheel. “Get closer to that bike!”

As she complied, Damien pointed the taser at the match’s gun and fired. The match seemed to notice and quickly swerved to the side. The weapon’s needle-tipped wires shot out, hitting the bike’s tires instead.

The match turned around, his teeth bared into a snarl, allowing the group to see his face for themselves. Damien had to admit that the resemblance between them was uncanny.

“Quite the look you got there,” Damien hollered. “But I still say it looks better on me!”

The match responded by firing his gun at their car tires, missing by barely an inch.

“Hey asshole!” Nadia called. “If you’re gonna impersonate an ex-cop, learn to aim like one!”

As they drifted closer to the bike, Damien fired his taser again and this time, the wires hit the bike’s rear seat. The subsequent crackle of electricity startled the match and he swerved closer to the van before leaping off of the bike and climbing onto the van’s roof.

“Shit!” Damien muttered. He blared the car’s horn to warn the girls as the robot continued to climb up the roof. He could only see so much of the van’s interior due to its tinted windows, but he could make out Alana’s figure at the driver’s seat.

She lurched the van lurched forcefully from side to side to throw the match off, but he dug his fingers right into the metal to hold his position as he crawled towards the front. Just as he landed on the hood, Damien heard a loud _CRASH! _as the robot smashed his fist into the windshield, causing everyone to jump in their seats.

The van suddenly burst far ahead and began skidding all over the place; tires screeching, metal crunching, engines roaring. It turned in circles and changed directions rapidly.

“What in the world?!” Hayden barely had time to shout. “They’re fighting over the wheel! They’re going to crash at this rate!”

Damien sat back down and took the wheel, trying to get closer, without getting caught by the van’s turbulent movement as it whirled in circles and veered toward the side of the highway.

They were still too far away to make out what exactly was going on, but Damien could only register one figure in red leaping onto the hood and jumping toward the side. The robot followed suit, pouncing onto her, and then both of them went over the hill.

The second figure they were anticipating didn’t come out and the van didn’t stop. They could only watch in horror as the vehicle spun out of control and then crashed head-on into the guardrail, bending the metal and leaning dangerously over the edge.

Damien barely registered Sloane’s terrified gasp, before he slammed his foot on the accelerator and raced over to the crash site.

As soon as they’d stopped, he hopped out and sprinted over to the van, his eyes widening as he took in the sight of the front. All the airbags had inflated and there were glass shards everywhere from the destroyed windshield. He could also see that the front seats were empty, but could barely make out the backseat due to the broken glass and the thick smoke rising from the engine.

“Maya?!” Nadia was calling. There was no answer. “Are you okay? Please tell me you’re okay!”

Damien’s heart was pounding a mile a minute as he rushed to the side door. “Maya!” he called her name desperately as he hit the window a couple of times. “Maya can you hear me? We’re going to get you out!”

“Damien,” he felt Hayden’s hand on his shoulder. “I got this.” Realizing what he planned to do, Damien stepped aside and watched as Hayden gripped the door and pried it off of the van with ease. Then the group peered inside only to find it empty.

“Thank god,” Nadia sighed in relief. “She definitely would’ve gotten injured in that crash.”

“But then where is she?” Sloane was frowning at her tablet and then peering in the direction of the gas station. “I didn’t see her jump out of the van, but I know she has to be around here!”

“And where’s Harley? He isn’t here either.”

Damien was positive that Maya would have tried to escape at some point here and also that if Harley wasn’t here helping out his accomplice, then he was definitely with her; or at least going after her.

He nodded in the direction of the wooded area where Alana had disappeared with his copy. “Only one way to find out.”

———-

Maya didn’t know how long she’d been running now, weaving through several bushes and pushing past tree branches. Though she’d made it into the forest long before Harley had found out what she’d done, it was a small enough area that she’d been able to hear him running towards her and she’d deviated in several directions, hoping to throw him off her trail.

She knew the highway would be somewhere on the other side, but this was still a deep forest. At this point she was running blindly, hoping she’d at least covered enough distance to lose Harley.

After various detours, she stopped to catch her breath, panting with exhaustion and sweating profusely. While recovering, Maya checked her surroundings quickly for any suspicious movement. She heard nothing nearby besides the soft rustling of leaves, but distantly, she wasn’t sure if she’d imagined the sound of car tires screeching.

Not wanting to take chances, Maya crept across the clearing and found a hiding place behind a rather large tree near several bushes. Sighing, she rubbed her knees where she’d scraped them from the few times she’d fallen while running. She rested against the tree and started searching her pockets for her phone.

This far out in the highway and in the middle of a forest, Maya wasn’t sure she’d get a signal, but now that she was away from watchful eyes, it was worth trying to call Damien or one of the others.

“Come on, come on.” she grumbled, as all she managed to fish out was some spare change and chewing gum. “Great. Of course one of them took it.”

“Looking for something?”


End file.
